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Thursday, July 31, 2014

A little under 100 days until the midterm elections and what do we know?

The
Republicans have made it clear – it’s all about them - they will not
compromise on anything – it’s their way or the highway - to hell with
anyone else.

The
Republicans have made it clear – it’s all about them - they support the
wealthy and tax cuts for the wealthy and to hell with everyone else.

The Republicans have made it clear – it’s all about them - they will continue to block anything that is not on “their agenda” - to hell with everyone else.

The
Republicans have made it clear – it’s all about them - they will repeal
everything that is not on “their agenda” - to hell with anyone else.

No
compromise – it’s all about them – no other voice(s) in this country
exist or need to be heard– except the Republicans - to hell with anyone
else.

I found this quote on a web page about a year ago and it made me think:

“Wake up America – Republicans are uncaring, unpatriotic and marching down the path of destroying the United States.”

In my opinion they have a point
– but may be missing the main point of current Republican (and Tea Party) behavior.I’m just thinking that you need to look at the Republican behavior from a new and different “Republican paradigm”.

So what does the “Republican paradigm” look like?

Republicans are caring people – they care about Republicans, specifically rich Republicans.I would even question if they care for the “tired, poor, huddled masses” Republicans.

Republicans are patriotic – in fact in their minds they probably believe they are the only true patriots.This is their country and only Republicans have the right to claim “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Republicans are not trying to destroy the United States. They probably believe that this was written for them and only for them.

“When
in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and
to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,…”

– they are trying to destroy everyone and everything that is not Republican.

It’s very possible that in their warped sense of reality, they believe that the “Republican States of America” shall prevail.

Then the Republicans can re-write the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the swagof the Republican States of America and to our republic for which it stands, one nation, under our God, with liberty and justice for us.

Every
time I hear a news report that Social Security is in grave danger and
we have to make drastic changes to retirement benefits – I want to
scream.Every time they talk
about drastic changes it is always about retirement benefits needing
change – I want to scream. Yesterday CNBC suggested Boomers were going
to bankrupt Social Security and I WANT TO SCREAM!

To a topic people don’t like to talk about.

BOOMERS ARE GOING TO DIE!
Got it?Do you understand that?
Does
it make sense to you?
Pay attention here – this is really important
when talking about “aged benefits” and Social Security solvency.
One webpage suggests Boomers are dying at a rate of 1 boomer dead every 35 seconds and they have a death counter for Boomers.
Because Boomers are a big part of the population - they will account for a large percentage of deaths over the coming years
- more than any age group
DEAD = not getting Social Security Anymore.

Life expectancy:
Defined as
Average number of years an individual could be expected to live based on current patterns of mortality. (Public Health Agency of Canada)

Life expectancy in the US

78.4(World Bank)

77.9(CDC)

According
to the Social Security Administration (2006) the life expectancy of a
60 year old male was 20.7 more years, a 60 year old female 23.78 years.

Based on those numbers we can pretty much agree that the US and the world reporting agencies agree that people are going to continue to die.

Wikipedia reports that there were approximately 76 million boomers born in the US between the years of 1946 and 1964.

·3.4 million boomers were born in 1946(USDept HEW -registered and unregistered births recorded)

·Boomers born in 1946 will reach full retirement age in 2011

·40
– 60% of boomers born in 1946 don’t have enough money to retire in 2011
(depending on which article you believe) (Still working? = still paying
into Social Security)

A new report released by the American Legislative Exchange
Council looks at widespread state government favoritism through the tax code,
in which specific individuals and businesses are treated unequally and given
tax carve-outs.

, which according to ALEC, distorts the market and should be
replaced with a simpler and more competitive tax code.

ALEC’s report arguing, “Specialized carve-outs in the tax
code are distortionary and ineffective at best, and examples of government
cronyism at worst. These carve-outs run contrary to the principles of sound tax
policy and the basic fairness of a level playing field for all businesses.”

Oh my - - - -

Snips from ALEC’s report

The Unseen Costs of Tax Cronyism: Favoritism and Foregone
Growth

And

Of course – it has a piece of legislation at the end of it –
only one piece of legislation, although I’m sure there are probably a dozen,
based on past ALEC history.

(It's on the ALEC webpage - you can find it there - I won't link to it)

Seems fitting that ALEC's new groundbreaking report would have the word "cronyism" in it the week before the annual meeting of state legislators and corporate lobbyists.

Cronyism

ALEC writing about Cronyism

Oh, my - - - -

ALEC

Legislators

Epitomize

Cronyism

But - no - that's not what they are writing about.

“policymakers can embrace cronyism by providing certain businesses and
industries with special targeted tax breaks and tax carve-outs.”

And by God – ALEC legislators do that every day!

But - no - that's not what they are writing about.

They go on to say that the tax cronyism (that most ALEC
legislators have been practicing for decades) leads to

"precipitating tax rate increases"

and

of course

"subverts market outcomes"

Oh, no - the 1% and the market are at risk - - Oh No!

But the biggest complaint ALEC makes in this report is about
the potential for public corruption.

meetings which by the way are totally funded by the corporations that the

lobbyists work for –

is now worried about public corruption.

Really?REALLY?

Get real – there’s more to this story that we won’t know
about for awhile yet.

Cronyism—the perversion of sound economic policy to create a
system that benefits one firm or industry at the expense of all
others—is a serious public policy problem.

ALEC wrote that – sounds pretty much what they do every day

But - no - that's not what they are writing about.

"the perversion of sound economic policy"

is done everyday, in every way - by "perverted" ALEC legislators

"serious public policy problem"

should be on every piece of ALEC literature

ALEC the serious public policy problem.

ALEC should own that phrase everyday, in every way

But later in the report ALEC re-writes their mumble jumble

- they like to do that to confuse people

- confusing people makes spreading mistruths easier.

You see, ALEC reports suck you in at the beginning of the report with happy crap and then hope you don't bother to read to the end - where the real evil is. And most idiots - don't read the whole thing - so the happy crap on the first couple pages becomes the news stories.

Later in the report

Cronyism is the substitution of political influence for free
markets. It comes about when government has a lot of power over private- sector
decisions and when the government officials in power have great discretion over
how to use it.

Oh, my – the real issue is now evident

has a lot of power
over private- sector decisions and when the government officials in power have
great discretion over how to use it

Oh, boy – ALEC corporations must be pissed about
something.But we won’t know what that
something is until ALEC releases their next batch of malicious legislation.

Evidently a couple of their corporate members didn’t get the
tax breaks and subsidies they wanted

SO

ALEC to the rescue – doing what they are paid millions of
dollars each year to do for their corporate members
protect the profits of corporate members and
this time they do it with a new report on how unfair
the
current system is
new legislation to
follow.

It gets even more bizarre in way when you consider that

ALEC is claiming that the current systems is unfair when
ALEC has been controlling the state legislatures in many states for many years.

BUT

The story doesn’t end there.

“In an ideal world, each and every state would publish an
expenditure report every year. This is not the case at all, and it was pretty
difficult trying to put this together,” ALEC’s William Freeland told reporters
on a call Thursday.

A growing number of state and local governments are
disclosing which companies they are giving tax breaks and other subsidies in
the name of job creation and economic development. Yet much of that information
is being disseminated through hard-to-find reports and web pages. SUBSIDY
TRACKER brings together the information from those far-flung sources--along
with unpublished data obtained through open records requests--to create the
first national search engine for economic development subsidies.

SUBSIDY
TRACKER brings together the information from those far-flung sources

The left does - what the right-wing finds difficult to do.

SOOOOOO

Let's take a look at tax breaks and other subsidies,

that the left is capable of documenting in a searchable database found at Subsidy Tracker.

Past and Present ALEC Private sector Board members

ALTRIA

State Subsidy Total: $43,083,398

AT&T

State Subsidy Total: $58,628,721

DIAGEO – a British owned company

State Subsidy Total: $40,012,492

EXXON

State Subsidy Total: $340,271,846

GLAXOSMITHKLINE

State Subsidy Total: $25,792,840

INTUIT

State Subsidy Total: $1,618,107

JOHNSON &
JOHNSON
State Subsidy Total:
$34,669,906

KOCH INDUSTRIES

State Subsidy Total:$89,172,767

KRAFT FOODS

State Subsidy Total: $15,205,849

PEABODY
ENERGY

State Subsidy Total: $278,095,289

PFIZER

State Subsidy Total: $201,959,919

STATE FARM INSURANCE

State Subsidy Total: $24,050

UNITED PARCEL SERVICE

State Subsidy Total: $133,306,952

WALMART

State Subsidy Total: $149,942,595

TOTAL$1,411,784,731.00

ONE and half BILLION DOLLARS

And that’s just a small piece of the pie

It is reported that WalMart gets

$7.8 BILLION in tax breaks and subsidies

Needy Walmart – only makes $16 BILLION IN PROFIT

Looking at the numbers above - there is a caution

This list is only 14, yes only 14 - of the over 300+ corporate
members of ALEC.

AND this doesn’t account for items from the Federal
government

ONE and half BILLION DOLLARS tax breaks and other subsidies

that the left is capable of documenting

in a searchable database found at Subsidy Tracker.

For fourteen ALEC corporations

Fourteen.

It was really handy for these corporations to have ALEC
legislators in their pocket when they needed them

Take my word – or don’t – that absolutely nothing good will
come out of this report.

It takes a mental contortionist to try and figure out what
is in the sick, twisted brain of American Legislative Exchange Council members
and staff.

It takes a mental contortionist to try and figure out what the outcome of this newest ALEC report will be.

The timing of the release of the report leads me to believe they are going to be
pushing this at the ALEC Dallas meeting next week

where your state legislator will be meeting privately

– behind
closed doors – with Corporate lobbyists

that want tax breaks and other subsidies

and then

your ALEC legislator will bring some nice sounding bill back to your state about
tax cronyism